Why did you own the 8-bit you had/have?

burntoutbanger · Post by **burntoutbanger** » Sat May 05, 2007 5:21 am

The first 8-bit my brother and I got was a Commodore Vic-20 for christmas (circa 1983), it severed us well with plenty of Â£1.99 and Â£2.99 classics bought from the local video rental store.

My brother, who's a couple of years older than me, soon started a paper round and saved up for a Spectrum 48k. I'm not sure his reasoning behind his choice but I know it opened up a whole world of games with more depth, gameplay and greater graphics. It's a world I'm still enjoying today.

A big thank you to my mum and brother.

Xesh · Post by **Xesh** » Sat May 05, 2007 2:16 pm

The Master wrote:You saved up two hundred quid from a paper round!! Blimey...

Didn't take very long when I did 2 rounds and got paid Â£15 a week.

Sega2006 · Post by **Sega2006** » Sat May 05, 2007 2:48 pm

I got paid Â£15 doing one round, unfortunatly the manager was an evil cow

Xesh · Post by **Xesh** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:57 pm

Â£15 a week was a lot of money to a teenager in the mid-80s.

djcarlos · Post by **djcarlos** » Sun May 06, 2007 7:59 am

I had an Electron, mainly because we didn't have loadsa cash and my dad got one on special offer in Dixons.

Â£199 for the Electron, tape deck, couple of BASIC manuals, a few games (Arcadians, Hopper, one about a boxer, possibly called "Boxer", Starship Command, Chess, Business Games and the Introductory Cassette, AND a 14" colour TV and all the leads n'stuff. And some C15s too, I think.

Which, I guess, was a bargain.

I don't know exactly when this was, but I reckon I was about 9, so 1985ish?

Then I got round to buying my own computer with savings and Xmas cash...but all I could afford was a C64c with a 3 game cart and tape deck etc, Â£99.99 I think from Spa Computers.

The Amiga and ST were slugging it out at the time, so once again you could say I missed the boat. I've owned a secondhand Amiga 500, then a Mega Drive, then a PC, but I always seemed to be a generation behind until I bought a launch Playstation and caught up.

And now, with my trusty PS2, I'm behind again....

Maybe I should change my sig to "Always nearly retro, just not quite."

rtrgrl78 · Post by **rtrgrl78** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:02 am

I had a an Atari 2600 which I sold for money for a Sony cassette walkman at the time. I missed my games machine, but my step-dad a had a bread bin Commodore 64 computer, at the pub where we lived at the time with a lot of tape games, nothing I was really into Beach Head and war like flying games. Still I liked it, and played it with him whenever he'd load it up. Christmas came round and folks asked me what I'd like I said a computer, and I got Commodore 64c, the light gun pack, my very own

, it looked educational too so thats why I think I got one and ironically the breadbin version lived in my room, most of the time coverevered up and on the desk my new one, am sure parents thought the new one was like an advanced version of the classic

.

The poor old breadbin one was swiftly moved away from its desk and its place my 'new' one, in fact me and my Dad spent a lot of time together, playing on his flying games, I must mention they were his and I never bothered with them if he wasn't around. I loved my light-gun, it was like am a girl and they've bought me a gun

and not moaned about it.

My brother got a Spectrum, the rubber keyed version one when I was really young, I never bothered with it. So luckily when it came to my turn the right choice was made. I remind my Mum that Dad must've got me into games, big time and she reminds me of all my pocket money spent on Joysticks, magazines, games and how we couldn't walk past a game shop. Dad, reminds of when in the six weeks school holiday, I stayed in my bedroom and played my Megadrive despite the gorgeous weather outside. Good days.

russgalleywood · Post by **russgalleywood** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:18 am

It was the beloved Beeb for me!

I didn't actually want one at the time but my Mum was working for a computer sales company and got it for half-price.
I actually wanted a Spectrum then. Grew quickly to love the BBC, especially after Christmas '84 when I got Elite!

We later got a Spectrum although by then I had seen how superior the C64 was and we only got the Speccy because my annoying, whining little brother with the 'face of an Angel' wanted one!

I was the ugly one my parents kept locked away upstairs......

But now have all three and love them all for different reasons, (plan to be playing Bombjack on my Speccy this evening in fact).

The Universal · Post by **The Universal** » Sun May 06, 2007 1:19 pm

I started out with the Phillips Video pac expansion that would allow you to write short basic routines.

My cousin had a ZX 81, which I coveted, my mother engaged in some siblin rivalry with my aunt and I ended up with the 48k Spectrum as a by product. After about 12 months and being more than a little disapointed with the speccy I was ready to upgrade again, this time to a CBM 64, which I fell in love with, it was 92 before the 64 was consigned to the loft.

Other machines came and went and I probably owned more machines than was ever healthy, but it remains the CBM that provides my happiest memories, a young boy, Input Magazine, and the flicker of that blue screen, endless possibilities....

DrBlue · Post by **DrBlue** » Mon May 07, 2007 1:15 pm

Had a Vic 20 and later a ZX Spectrum +2A. Got them the same way as most other people, Mum bought them for Xmas.

A few years after I got the +2A one of my mates got a Mega Drive which i was blown away by. Unfotunately my Mum, not being the most knowledgeable person regarding these things, got me a Master System that Christmas. Still had lots of fun with it though (always prefered the SMS version of Sonic).

thl · Post by **thl** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:20 pm

The first time I had the 8-bit console was thanks to one of my brothers. Around the summer of 1989, he was given a Master System as a present by his primary school teacher for gaining 100% full attendance. Few classmates of his also had the Master System and was able to swap and borrow games during those periods.

Also the Atari 2600 (redesigned model) that I had wasn't working properly due to loss of colour and joystick being badly damage. So it was time to move on and the Master System worked really well.

Xesh · Post by **Xesh** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:07 pm

thl wrote:Around the summer of 1989, he was given a Master System as a present by his primary school teacher for gaining 100% full attendance.

What!

I wish my school did something like that. All they did was say "Well done."

OriginalJax · Post by **OriginalJax** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:46 pm

I think a lot of kids got systems based on what their friends had at the time. If more of your friends had a certain machine, it was a bigger game-pool for sharing or (more likely, *cough*) copying. Friends in your clique with an alternate machine often drifted towards other friends with the same system. At least that happened with me and a bunch of friends...

Ritchardo mkII · Post by **Ritchardo mkII** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:20 am

My parents bought me an Amstrad CPC 464 and it seemed a bit of a bolt out of the blue to be honest - I was probably too young to own or properly appreciate a computer but having said that it was most definitely partly responsible for the head start I had over my peer group at school in terms of numeracy and literacy.

I believe they picked the CPC for two distinct reasons:

1) It came with its own monitor - no need for a seperate TV
2) It was censored easy to run games. The tap of a couple of buttons (bearing in mind I was five when I got the thing!)

Shin_Gouki · Post by **Shin_Gouki** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:40 am

Christmas 1987: "The family" got a C64 (after much hinting from myself, I was insanely jealous of my Uncle's). I hijacked it, and the only other real use it got from "The Family" was when Dad sat up for 4 hours one night playing Who Dares Wins. I wish I still had the beige beast, I miss it every day. I might actually get off my arse and buy another soon, though they always seem to go for ridiculous amounts on eBay. The chance of finding one in a bootie here in Oz is as likely as walking out your front door one morning only to discover lotteries office employees waiting for you with a big cheque in hand. If only.

The Penultimate Ninja · Post by **The Penultimate Ninja** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:50 am

I didn't really have any input into the matter. My parent bought me the C64 for Christmas.

Apparently they bought a Speccy originally, but when they tested it they didn't like the awful screeching of the tapes loading and didn't think they could put up with that all the time. So they took it back and got a C64 because it didn't have that problem and the games were better because they "were in colour, not black and white".

Can't say I've ever had any cause to complain about their decision.

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